love, friday (I Heart NY edition)

• Loved visiting the Martha Show with my awesome friend, Rebecca. Loved waiting in line with knitters and oohing and aahing over their hats, scarves, and sweaters, loved the camaraderie that always come from gathering a group of excited knitters together and loved the anticipation of the show taping. (It airs on Monday, February 25.)
• Loved sitting in the front row of the main section, even though we were way off to the right side (or is that stage left?). Martha entered the show from the greenhouse that day, so we were about 10 feet from her then. Loved the energy of the studio.
• Loved meeting Lisa and daughter Amelia at the show. How could Martha have known that seating us next to this pair of organic farmers would inspire a NYC adventure after the show including yarn store shopping and Indian food? We had such a great time with our new "NYC best friends" for the evening! Lisa called it "serendipity" on her blog, and I have to agree.
• Loved being at the Martha Show, even though I'm not a "die-hard" Martha fan. I think she's neat, couldn't care less about her financial activities/prison record, and appreciated the chance to be there. Lots of people have asked "what's she really like?" since we were there. Well, the answer is, I don't know! It's not like we had a personal cup of tea with her or anything. The show was very, very well-run and there wasn't really a spare moment for her to "show her true colors" or anything dramatic like that. She was very gracious, welcoming and even funny. It was enjoyable!
• Loved visiting Purl yarn shop in Soho after the show. It's a teeny shop that is positively packed with beautiful yarns.
• Loved taking a load off and knitting over tea/coffee with Rebecca at the Whole Foods in Columbus Circle the next day. We had to build up our energy for the second long day of "New York City hiking" ahead of us.
• Loved the American Museum of Natural History, as expected. This was my second visit there, but the first one was about 12 years ago. The Biodiversity Hall was really cool and I felt very special going through the Meteorites, Minerals, and Gem Stones Halls with my very own personal geologist on hand to tell me neat stuff.
• Loved finding The Yarn Company just a few blocks from the museum. They had a great selection of yarns including this entire table of Manos del Uruguay. All so, so very touchable!
• Loved their selection of Koigu too, as Rebecca also loved and is examining in this photo. (All three NYC yarn shops we visited had a lot of Koigu...very nice.)
• Love this super-soft, organic cotton yarn that I chose from The Yarn Company. I positively fell in love with the pale chocolate color (what is it with me and chocolate-colored cotton yarns?) and loved the pale pink with it even more. Since we won't know our baby's gender until this coming Tuesday, I couldn't decide what colors to get for a little baby kimono sweater (the one from "Natural Knits for Babies and Moms," so cute, I can't wait to knit it!). So I bought two browns for the main color and will add the pale pink if it's a girl or the beautiful sand/ivory colored yarn if it's a boy. (Yes, I'm totally hoping to be able to use that pale pink, but I will be just as content to cast on with the alternative. I just can't wait to KNOW!)
• Love the Koigu yarn I bought for Dan's new socks,
and the Koigu solo-skein that I found on sale at Purl for Jackson's new socks. I was running short on masculine yarns for their feet, so these browns and grays should do nicely. (I know that Jackson can wear just about any colors on his feet, but my leftovers have been very "girly" colored lately.)
• Love NYC...including the awesome Thai food that we had at Galanga (a place that Dan and I visited on our honeymoon that I still can't get out of my head), the beautiful hotel where we stayed near the United Nations (thanks to an awesome Priceline deal), the walk across Central Park under a bright blue sky, the walk through Times Square with espresso in hand late one night (complete with a rat that ran right in front of us...loved it!) and the subway. I love the challenge of getting from point A to point B in a new town and the NYC subway is very easy to figure out. We walked a ton (my pregnant ligaments are still sore!) but we also rode the subway and cabbed-it a lot. Too fun.

• Loved coming home to big hugs from boys who missed me and am looking forward to spending a full weekend with them both again, starting tonight. See? All a mom needs sometimes is a little, short refreshing break.

• Love 20 weeks. Love that this baby kicked all the way through the trip, as if telling me that s/he loved the trip too!

love, friday
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• Did NOT love getting snubbed by a clerk (owner?) of another ritzy yarn shop on the Upper East Side. We walked in, said hello, were noticeably examined from head to toe and snubbed, as if she thought that we weren't dressed right for her store. (Was it my 15-year old Birkenstock clogs that gave it away?) Oh well, we caressed her $120 skein of cashmere yarn, checked out the Koigu selection and high-tailed it out of there. Who needs a snobby yarn shop anyway?!